Ice, snow make Super Bowl host city a mess

Posted by Michael David Smith on February 1, 2011, 7:44 AM EST

The handful of reporters who have made it to the Super Bowl Media Center this morning are doing the very thing that makes football fans hate reporters at this time of year: Complaining about the weather in the Super Bowl host city.

But in this case, the weather in the Dallas area really is terrible: Temperatures are in the 20s, snow and ice are covering the roads, and nearly every local school has been closed.

There’s no word yet on whether Super Bowl Media Day, which is scheduled to take place this morning at Cowboys Stadium, will be affected. All the local news stations are telling people to stay off the roads, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell might be tempted to delay media day for the sake of the safety of the thousands of people who are supposed to travel those icy roads to get there, just as he delayed the Vikings-Eagles game during the 2010 season because of snow in Philadelphia.

Then again, that would risk having the governor label the NFL a bunch of wusses.

And if you’re a football fan who hates to hear reporters complaining about the weather, what you’ll hear this week from Dallas is nothing compared to what we’re sure to get next year in Indianapolis, and in 2014 in New York.

36 responses to “Ice, snow make Super Bowl host city a mess”

This is not really surprising, and why Dallas never hosted the game in Texas Stadium or the Cotton Bowl:

Dallas does get some winter weather every year, and they have their share of cold days every year. While not neceessairly a “cold weather city” on the level if New York, Philly, Chicago, etc., It’s not as warm weather a city as others either.

I went to Dallas for a business trip in February a few years back. Arriving from Wisconsin to notice the weather was nearly identical to what I had left. The only difference was watching the drivers who didn’t realize you can’t go 75 miles per hour on icy roads. The shuttle driver was doing the same, and I told him to slow down or put us all in the ditch. I told him I was from Wisconsin and you learn these things very quickly where I live. He did slow down, then we proceeded to pass all the cars who sped past us…many of them honking…who were now in the ditch on each side of the freeway. The shuttle driver thanked me for the advice.

Yes, as I sit here in the Midwest preparing to get hammered with 14-20 inches of snow, what I really want to do is listen to the media whine about ice and snow. You really know how to please the readers.

There is a big difference between cancelling a game in Philly and moving media day in Dallas. Presumably the folks in Philly know how to drive in this stuff. Texas gets 3 days of winter weather a year. No one knows how to drive in this stuff, so they just shut down. Philly were wusses, Dallas would not be.

>>There is a big difference between cancelling a game in Philly and moving media day in Dallas. Presumably the folks in Philly know how to drive in this stuff. Texas gets 3 days of winter weather a year. No one knows how to drive in this stuff, so they just shut down. Philly were wusses, Dallas would not be.>>

There were two main factors as to why that game in Philly was postponed:

1. The game itself would have been played at the height of the storm, with winds of 50-60 Miles Per Hour and 1-2″ of snow per hour. Never mind fans doing anything stupid in the stands, there would have been safety issues during the game itself.

2. While Philly wound up with 11″ of snow, parts of New Jersey got as much as two and a half to three times that. 30-40 miles made a massive difference in what you got from that storm (which also slammed New York with 20″ officially and 30″ or more in some parts of the New York area), likely prompting New Jersey officials (as a third or more of Eagles fans actually live in South Jersey) to request to both the Eagles and the NFL that the game be postponed (and had that game been in The Meadowlands, it would have been postponed as well), especially with many roads in New Jersey closed.

Dallas is getting what is already being regarded as the worst storm in 50 years, which is saying something given they had a couple of big snowstorms themselves last winter.

Snow is manageable, but ice is unpredictable. Northern cities such as Detroit and New York can deal with he impact of snow, but southern cities are not equip to handle the occasional winter storm. This type of weather is unfortunate for cities like Dallas, Atlanta, Nashville, etc. that lie on the “freeze line” of weather.

Don’t delay media day…..cancel it. Who needs you guys asking stupid questions all day anyhow. Let the guys prepare to play football. In the meantime, Peter King can work on his next bone-headed story and misquote the commish. What a bunch of jerks!!!

Here in Dallas they don’t have plows to push the snow. They have very few sand trucks, but they only put the sand on the overpasses and bridges. They are not equipped to handle it. Back in Iowa, you’d have to get a 2 feet of snow over night to shut the schools down. Here, all it takes is an inch.

The concern is not so much the day of the game. The concern is that while the Superbowl is held in Arlington, teams are staying in hotels in Irving and Fort Worth. There are 1,000’s of volunteers that cannot arrive at the NFL experience activities (myself included) because of the ice on the roads. Fed-Ex deliveries are suspended today. This type of weather is rare for for DFW. The resources of the NFL to get the road’s cleared are a blessing for the area. Many of us are not comfortable nor do we know how to drive in this weather. Wind chills are in the teens. I have lived here for 11 years and don’t remember this kind of ice on the roads. While PIT and GB folks have the tire chains, plowing devices and knowledge in this weather, those of us that live here do not experience this very often. So, please bare with us as we,as the host city do our very best to make this as exciting as possible for our guests and visitors!

Last weekend it was in the low 70’s…perfect. Super Bowl weekend it will be in the mid 50’s mostly sunny. The game itself….72 degrees and no wind. Beats the hell out of a Miami monsoon. Weather in this part of the world can be unpredictable in the winter and the past 7 days are no exception. Ever heard the expression, “if you don’t like the weather in Texas hang around for 15 minutes, it’ll change”? Days like this are the perfect example.

Surprised that everyone in the mainstream media has overlooked the fact that had they played last Sunday, the weather would have been fine (70 degrees). But nope, we were subjected to the Pro Bowl instead.

It’s just a matter of bad timing really. As other have stated, this part of Texas maybe gets 2 or 3 bad weather days a year and it just happens to be now.

Dallas had 70 degree temps just a couple of days ago, and gets their share of those every winter (and yes, if the Super Bowl had been played this past Sunday, it would have been in the low 70s).

This is simply a case of timing. We have a monster storm that is bringing monster snow to some with freezing rain changing to all rain in others (much of the I-95 corridor, including New York is looking at freezing rain changing to rain tonight into tomorrow morning). Weather should be fine in Dallas for Super Bowl Sunday and actually would have been if New York hosted the game this year (see my last post).

Sunday’s weather will be fabulous! So, people that have been shut in all week (we won’t have temps above freezing until Saturday) will pay to watch the game! I wish it was safe to travel to the NFL experience. THAT is what hosting the Superbowl is all about!!!